This week I am in Florida for a Launchpad sprint. I was meant to arrive on Sunday night, but I fell asleep in the boarding lounge and missed the San Francisco → Orlando flight (the flight out of Perth was an early morning one, and I didn’t get enough sleep on the plane). The earliest alternative fligh was the same time the next day, so I ended up ariving on Monday night.
I can’t say I was impressed with United’s customer service though. I was directed to the customer service centre in the airport and queued up behind about 10 other people. After a short while, the one staff member at the desk announced that her shift was over and that her replacements would not be arriving for another hour. It seems like really bad management to leave the desk unattended for an hour, particularly when they knew that there were people waiting.
They had a bunch of check-in computers which were supposed to let you change your flight details, so I gave one of these a try. Unfortunately, the computers directed me to pick up the phone to talk to a representative, and the representative ended up directing me to talk to someone at the customer service centre. After waiting for the next shift, things got sorted out okay though, which was good.
This was also my first experience with SSSS screening. In fact I got to experience it twice: once when checking in for the flight I missed, and again for the later flight. On my way back to Australia, I’ll have two more flights leaving from US airports so it’ll be interesting to see what happens then.
The nice thing about SSSS, I find, is that you can get through security faster. Since you’re not going through the normal security screening anyway, there’s no point waiting in line. Go over to the Elite/First class line and wave your boarding pass at them, pointing out the S’s and you get your own personal TSA agent.